kitchen. Most chefs rarely use pepper, and when they do, they
use it in dishes that they think will benefit from a hit of the
seasoning. Even then, they seldom use it at the beginning of the
cooking process. Add pepper at the end of cooking just to impart
some complexity and some heat.
08 Use the Internet.
There’s this notion that chefs are infallible, that when it comes to
food, they know everything. That’s very much not the case. Most
of the chefs I met while writing this book were humble, always
eager to learn more. And when they really don’t know something,
they look it up on the Internet (just like most of us do at home).
Naomi Pomeroy told me that whenever she wants to learn a new
technique, she turns to the Internet and does her research there.
Her food, which is already terrific, is that much better because of
all the new things she’s willing to learn.
09 Clean with fluidity.
Doing the dishes is the most dreaded of kitchen tasks, but one of
the most essential lessons I took away from my time cooking with
great chefs is that doing the dishes is not a separate act from
cooking. It’s all part of the same fluid sequence of motions: mix
ingredients in a bowl, dump the contents into a pan, put the bowl
in the sink and run water in it while you put the pan in the oven.
Then, while the pan is baking, wash the bowl and wipe down the
counters (clean counters make cooking so much more pleasant).
